Page 4

Ezra

Ezra was going to fuck Titan Leon.

Breathless, panting, he pulled Titan into his bedroom and slammed the door shut.

It was dark without the light from the hallway—too dark to see—but Ezra didn’t need his vision to feel how Titan grabbed him by the shoulders and pinned him to the wall.

The air between them stirred and the heat of Titan’s body closed in, and Ezra knew if he were to lift his chin, Titan’s lips would be right there, waiting to claim his mouth in a searing kiss.

It wouldn’t be the first one they had shared since leaving the rehearsal dinner.

Titan’s relentless flirting had gone on all night, and as the hours had slipped by, Ezra had fallen entirely under his spell.

At the wedding rehearsal, with Titan by Al’s side and Ezra across from him at Jude’s, there had been no escape from Titan’s leering eyes.

Then at dinner, Titan had slid smoothly into the seat beside Ezra’s and spent the entire time running his ankle along Ezra’s leg, whispering seductive things into his ear.

Things like, “I wish to see your human form with the absence of you r human clothing, Ambassador Ezra,” and “I would like to experiment with the functionality of my new human anatomy and require your assistance, Ambassador Ezra.”

And while, yeah, they weren’t exactly come-ons by human standards, the way Titan had spoken them with such overconfidence made Ezra want to jump his bones right there at the table, friends and family be damned.

Hot boys who said dumb things were his kryptonite, and hot boys who said dumb things with their whole chest?

God.

He had never wanted to ride someone’s dick more in his life.

That, and there was something about being called “Ambassador” in that tone of voice that really got him going… even though he wasn’t sure how he’d become an ambassador in the first place.

Which was why, by the time dessert had wrapped up and the rehearsal dinner had come to an end, Ezra had taken Titan by the wrist and hissed, “This is a one-time thing, all right?” before dragging him up a back staircase in order to get to his bedroom unseen.

Titan, smirking, had followed, and now here they were.

In the dark.

Together.

Lips barely a kiss away.

Had it been any other hookup, or had there been a little more champagne involved, Ezra would have gladly lifted his chin and taken the kiss he’d been craving all night.

He preferred having sex in the dark, where it was easier not to get so hung up on his own body image issues…

but in the dark, he was alone with Titan’s personality, and that simply would not do.

The only reason he was doing this was because Titan was hot, and if he couldn’t enjoy the view, then there wasn’t any point.

So rather than let things progress naturally, Ezra pushed Titan away and clapped twice, activating his bedside lamp.

A dull, warm light flooded the room, and there stood Titan, hot as hell and every bit as cocky, his eyes on Ezra and Ezra alone, like Ezra was the one with a modelesque body…

until the glimmer of light reflecting off Ezra’s pinball machine caught his eye, and Titan stopped looking at him to stare agog at the room.

Ezra’s bedroom had a decidedly… different…

energy than the rest of the house. This was by design.

It wasn’t that Ezra disliked being rich—it would be absurd of him to be ungrateful for his sudden privilege—but it didn’t come naturally to him.

Luxury felt foreign, and the truth was, since coming to live with Al and Jude in their mansion, he’d felt like an intruder more often than not.

A large part of him really missed his shitty rental with its collapsing infrastructure and questionable smells, but he knew moving back there wouldn’t fix the ache in his heart; it would only remind him of how much things had changed, and that they would never be the same again.

Which was why Jude, who knew Ezra better than Ezra knew himself, had given him permission to decorate his wing of the mansion any way he pleased.

With his blessing, Ezra had crafted his bedroom into somewhere safe he could escape to—somewhere that felt like him, and not some hoity-toity Better Homes & Gardens spotlight.

In other words: somewhere very, very weird.

But it hadn’t occurred to him until now that a room like this might catch the guys he brought home off guard.

“Is that Secretary of Defense Buttons?” Titan asked with reverence, eyes glued to a giant oil painting of Ezra’s cat that he’d commissioned from the artist who’d painted the official White House portrait of Barack Obama.

In the painting, Buttons was on a fluffy cat bed and was wearing a golden crown.

“Yeah, I got that done when she got the position.”

“And what is that large piece of debris?” Titan pointed at what seemed to be the jagged remains of a broken wooden door.

“I paid a shit-ton of money to get the original raft from the Titani c movie. The one Jack totally could have fit on if Rose would have just scooted over a little.”

“This does not mean anything to me.”

“Don’t worry about it.”

“And the rectangular table with the bright colors and glass top?”

“Oh, that’s my pinball machine. I always wanted one. I used to beat every high score on the board when I would go to the arcade as a kid.”

“This also means nothing to me.”

“Then stop asking questions. That’s not why we’re up here, anyway.”

Ezra made to put his hands on Titan, but Titan was still distracted by Ezra’s bizarre collection of knickknacks. He gazed in wonder at something in the general vicinity of Ezra’s bed. “Your lighting device… is it controlled by the smacking of your hands?”

“It changes color, too,” Ezra said proudly, derailing his own sexy thoughts in favor of showing off his funky lamp. He clapped in a different rhythm and the room was suddenly bathed in blue. He did it again and it was red. Again—purple. Again—green.

His hands were still in position, ready to clap the lamp into orange, when Titan seemed to remember why they’d come there in the first place and slid his hand from Ezra’s lower back all the way to his far hip.

“That is a fine trick,” he murmured, teasing the skin just beneath the top of Ezra’s belt.

“Consider me thoroughly impressed by your inferior human technology. But there is something else I would like to see.” His lips found the edge of Ezra’s ear, and in a hot little whisper, he asked, “Would you show me your human body, Ambassador? I am more intrigued by your biology than I am by your lighting device.”

Oh, that asshole. Irritation hit Ezra upside the face like a frying pan, and he took a step away to face Titan head-on. “Inferior human technology? You’re so full of yourself, dude.”

Titan’s cool and confident demeanor slipped fractionally. “What else would I be filled with?”

“It’s a turn of phrase.”

“Of course it is a turn of phrase. I know this. I was making a humorous statement.”

“You mean a joke?”

“I believe this is what I just said.” Titan made a dismissive gesture, as though casting the conversation to the side. “Irrelevant,” he declared. “You need not worry. I am very intelligent and know many things. More things than most beings.”

God, he was a dick… and god, Ezra needed his dick inside of him right now.

Unable to help himself any longer, he grabbed Titan by the back of his neck and dragged him down into a crushing, silencing kiss.

There was no finesse in what he did—he’d done it to make a point—and after that point was made, Ezra pulled away and whispered hotly against Titan’s lips, “Please, for the love of god, stop talking.”

Titan, predictably, opened his mouth to keep talking, so Ezra grabbed him by the lapels and took matters into his own hands.

With a tug, he brought Titan’s lips back to his, and this time he kissed him with purpose.

He was a good kisser, not that he’d ever brag about it—unlike Titan, he wasn’t in the habit of flaunting his skills—but enough lovers had commented positively on his technique for him to believe that he knew what he was doing.

Trusting in those skills, he parted his lips and licked into Titan’s mouth, sliding their tongues together…

and damn, if it wasn’t an ego boost to hear the pitiful way it made that pompous jerk whimper.

“Stop talking,” Ezra said again when their lips next parted, closing in so his body was right up against Titan’s, “and fuck me.”

Titan finally seemed to get the message.

He reached up and thread ed his fingers through Ezra’s thick brown hair, then used his grip to angle Ezra’s head up and brought their lips back together.

His tongue found Ezra’s, tracing along it as if in apology, while below he adjusted his footing and used his thigh to part Ezra’s legs.

Their groins brushed.

Titan was already so hard, Ezra felt it through their clothing.

Ezra wasn’t far behind.

Breathless with the realization that Titan was hot for him, Ezra reached between their bodies and fumbled to undo the buttons of Titan’s jacket. He wasn’t used to being the object of someone’s desire, let alone someone who looked like Titan Leon, and it was a total headrush.

Was this what it was like to be confident?

Wanted?

Desired.

Because while, yeah, what he had with Titan was purely a physical thing, knowing someone so hot was hot for him was one hell of an ego boost.

After an agonizing amount of effort, the last button of Titan’s jacket finally came undone.

Ezra, dizzy from the complex knot of lust and feel-good emotion tangled up inside of him, pushed the garment off Titan’s shoulders, prompting Titan to let go of his hair just long enough that it dropped to the floor.

“I love this,” Titan whispered as he took hold of Ezra’s hair once more.

“What, my hair?”

“Yes. This is not a feature that my people have. We find it a very interesting trait, and you have much of it.”